Weirdest thing you've ever been accused of...

flippin_mermaid · Post by **flippin_mermaid** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:20 pm

When I'd first started working at Disneyland, back in March 2000, I was accused of "stealing a credit card"....it was a very strange incident.

It was my third shift ever working, I was at the Emporium of all godforsaken places, and it was INCREDIBLY busy. I hadn't stopped ringing guests the entire night...it was constant. Suddenly, a blonde woman comes up to me while I'm helping guests and she rudely tells me, "I want my credit card back!". I was stunned, but kept my cool, finished helping the guest, and then turned to her and assessed the situation. She insisted that I hadnt give her credit card back to her. Now, I remembered helping her...it had been about an hour since I'd helped her...but I honestly did NOT remember her paying with a credit card. I didn't tell HER that though, I looked ALL over for it...in the cash register, on the floor, in the trash...EVERYWHERE. Every time I tried to stop to explain that I didn't have it, she started to freak out and yell loudly that I stole it and I BETTER have it! So of course, I still have this HUGE line of people, all the cast members did, and I try to get the line to move over to the next cast member as I call the manager. The line of people is PISSED, and understandably so. Anyway, it takes like 15 minutes for the manager to get out there...in the meantime, this lady is now almost hysterical yelling loudly that I "stole" her credit card and she wants it back NOW and all that. I'm getting frustrated, guests are looking, people are pissed, she's yelling, her sister is yelling....I continue to look all around just in case she WAS right and had used her card. But there was NOTHING...not even a recipt...and she didn't have one either. She claimed I never gave it to her, which was ridiculous since I always gave the receipt back WITH the change or card! So I was totally baffled. By the time the manager got there, this lady was red in the face she was yelling so loud. The manager asked what happened, she yelled some more, and then I tried calmly to explain what was going on...but I started to cry. I'd never had an incident happen like that to me in my life and I was VERY frustrated. I turned away crying and the manager told another cast member to walk me to the back...the lady started to scream and point, "See!!! I KNEW she stole it!! She's crying because she's guilty and she knows what she did was wrong!!"....I was completely horrified. I went into the back and calmed down. The manager came to get me and asked me privately what happened, I explained, and then she took me back out there where the lady was. This lady then had this whole theory of how she KNEW I took her credit card and was planning on using it since I "looked like her"....the ONLY similarity I had to this nasty bitch was that we both had long wavy blonde hair. That was IT! I was 21 (though I looked about 16) and she was clearly in her late 30s. I think she WANTED to think she looked like ME, but it just wasn't so. I had no idea how to even use someone else's card even. So the manager had to take me back into the office and they had security there and everything. They literally had me searched. I was humiliated, but I totally complied with them because I had NOTHING to hide. They had me empty my pockets, had me patted down, had me take my shoes and stockings off and searched those....yeah....it was HORRIBLE. I had to write a full statement and I was just completely horrified. They told me they'd contact me about what they found out from the cameras, but they never did...and when I asked several times about it, they always gave me the run-around and sent me to different people.

Anyway...that's my insane experience. I was SO offended to be accused of stealing anything. It's a wonder I didn't quit after that...it was only my third shift ever working there!

madhatter04 · Post by **madhatter04** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 8:05 pm

flippin_mermaid... that's awful!!

On my 2nd shift ever, during last Christmastime, I was accused of "touching my hair". Now we wear those funky little white caps, so there was no way I could touch my hair unless I took it off, but this old, bleached-blonde lady was leaning over the counter yelling "YES!! that's him!! he's touching the hair!! this is disgusting!!! he TOUCHED HIS HAIR!!" Now I was carrying a bucket of hot water to put under the chowder, so I don't get how I could have been touching my hair in the first place. My trainer was the lead, so she said "Alex!! get into the back!!" and I thought I was in trouble, so I waited by the door and the lead came out and said "you know what that lady's a freak I was watching you and you didn't touch anything so don't worry! dont let the evil guests get to you.." so that was kinda nice. I believe it was New Year's Eve, too. This is why I'm looking forward to giving Characters another go in February (i tried this month but got cut at the veerrrry end... i didn't know how to portray Foulfellow very well!)

screnwriter · Post by **screnwriter** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 11:17 pm

madhatter04 wrote:flippin_mermaid... that's awful!!

This is why I'm looking forward to giving Characters another go in February (i tried this month but got cut at the veerrrry end... i didn't know how to portray Foulfellow very well!)

You go Hatter!

I didn't make it the first time I auditioned for characters, but I DID the second time, and I still remember many moments of that grueling two days! Best memory was at the end of the first day, when the crowd of us in the rehearsal hall - red faced, sweating, exhausted - listened as the names were called of those who would return the next day for part II of the audition. I walked over to a girl named Diane Hook, who'd been called after me, and we hugged like two survivors of an earthquake, and I said, "Okay, we made it this far, let's make it thru tomorrow!"

And we did!

You'll love Characters. It's the coolest thing in the world to say your are, or have done. And your memories will last forever.

goose · Post by **goose** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 3:47 am

madhatter04 wrote:flippin_mermaid... that's awful!!

On my 2nd shift ever, during last Christmastime, I was accused of "touching my hair". Now we wear those funky little white caps, so there was no way I could touch my hair unless I took it off, but this old, bleached-blonde lady was leaning over the counter yelling "YES!! that's him!! he's touching the hair!! this is disgusting!!! he TOUCHED HIS HAIR!!" Now I was carrying a bucket of hot water to put under the chowder, so I don't get how I could have been touching my hair in the first place. My trainer was the lead, so she said "Alex!! get into the back!!" and I thought I was in trouble, so I waited by the door and the lead came out and said "you know what that lady's a freak I was watching you and you didn't touch anything so don't worry! dont let the evil guests get to you.." so that was kinda nice. I believe it was New Year's Eve, too. This is why I'm looking forward to giving Characters another go in February (i tried this month but got cut at the veerrrry end... i didn't know how to portray Foulfellow very well!)

If I were you I would have started touching my hair with both hands, while giving her an insane look. What a stupid bitch....

Main Streeter · Post by **Main Streeter** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 4:42 am

flippin_mermaid wrote:When I'd first started working at Disneyland, back in March 2000, I was accused of "stealing a credit card"....it was a very strange incident.... They literally had me searched. I was humiliated, but I totally complied with them because I had NOTHING to hide. They had me empty my pockets, had me patted down, had me take my shoes and stockings off and searched those....yeah....it was HORRIBLE. I had to write a full statement and I was just completely horrified. They told me they'd contact me about what they found out from the cameras, but they never did...and when I asked several times about it, they always gave me the run-around and sent me to different people.
Anyway...that's my insane experience. I was SO offended to be accused of stealing anything. It's a wonder I didn't quit after that...it was only my third shift ever working there!

OMG! This is one of those "it just couldn't happen at Disney Land" horror stories. Have no idea how you coped with security's insane tactics!! They do pull more than their share.

No, I don't speak from my own experience, but have seen them accuse & pull Hitler attitudes with a CM I was close to. Their power is beyond belief. :twisted: Was anything pertaining to this incident ever filed in your Cast Records? I ask to view my Cast Records file yearly just to see what may have been slipped in without my knowledge. Your nightmare is one all too common. Guests REALLY NEVER UNDERSTAND A CMs STRESS. :(

lady ulrike · Post by **lady ulrike** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 11:25 am

I may have posted this elsewhere but it fits here too. I was accused of being a racist once. I was grouping at Small World and asked the next group how many, they replied with three. I had one row open and sent them to it. Two ladies and a baby went past me, I then stopped the next guy, he said I'm with them and I was just like okay thinking so they didn't count the baby, most people don't anyway. Well, he joins the group and said she stopped me because she's a racist. I amazingly was able to keep my cool and simply replied no, she told me there were three in the group and I counted the baby.

He was black and the ladies were not, I don't remember what they were, but it just bothered me that he immediately assumes I'm a racist and that's why he got stopped, maybe if the members of his group could count, there wouldn't be a problem.

flippin_mermaid · Post by **flippin_mermaid** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 5:12 pm

Main Streeter wrote:OMG! This is one of those "it just couldn't happen at Disney Land" horror stories. Have no idea how you coped with security's insane tactics!! They do pull more than their share. No, I don't speak from my own experience, but have seen them accuse & pull Hitler attitudes with a CM I was close to. Their power is beyond belief. :twisted: Was anything pertaining to this incident ever filed in your Cast Records? I ask to view my Cast Records file yearly just to see what may have been slipped in without my knowledge. Your nightmare is one all too common. Guests REALLY NEVER UNDERSTAND A CMs STRESS. :(

Oh... I can actually ASK TO SEE MY OWN CAST RECORDS??? Jeez! I am so naive! I didn't even know I COULD ask to look into my own files. I had SO many problems there near the end of my "career" and I was so believing of whatever the managers at Disney told me that I actually never even knew I could even get a Union Rep and all that. Yeah, what a silly little girl I am sometimes.

Ah well... good to know NOW, but it's too late.

screnwriter · Post by **screnwriter** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 5:44 pm

flippin_mermaid wrote:Oh... I can actually ASK TO SEE MY OWN CAST RECORDS??? Jeez! I am so naive! I didn't even know I COULD ask to look into my own files. I had SO many problems there near the end of my "career" and I was so believing of whatever the managers at Disney told me that I actually never even knew I could even get a Union Rep and all that. Yeah, what a silly little girl I am sometimes.

Ah well... good to know NOW, but it's too late.

On the subject of Cast Records. In Parades we had Comment Cards where good and bad things were noted (including compliments, show critiques, and disciplines).

In '92, at the end of the first summer of Fantasmic!, on the last night I was to play Maleficent, I ran out of the color of make up that was my base. Finding no supplies of green, and no blue and yellow (in a base), I used an aqua color that I found as the base make up.

I got a negative comment for changing my make up without talking to someone. I never thought I had to ASK someone, as I was 31, and intelligent enough to know that if there ain't any green, and no blue and yellow either - aqua is all that's left.

But what really ticked me off is, I'd never know about the comment, if not for another Fantasmic! cast member telling me he'd heard the ASM telling someone else about it. So it's not important enough to tell me, but it's cool to gossip about what I've done to other cast members?

Believe me, I FOUGHT against loose lips when I became a lead two years later.